Back In My Day: Clay Travis

Here's the second in the Back in My Day series, where we talk to prominent GW grads about their time at school and the basketball team back then. Today's installment is Clay Travis, CBS Sportsline writer, authorand NFL pudding striker who even has his own Wikipedia page.

Here goes.

When were you at GW?
I was at GW from 1997-2001. During this time I was the worst student basketball manager on earth for two NCAA Tourney teams and one 15-14 squad featuring Val Brown.

What comes to mind about GW basketball when you were in school?
Every time I think about GW basketball four things immediately come to mind:

a. Shawnta Rogers' shot against Xavier to win the A-10 West and how I was the first non-player on the court to celebrate.

b. How angry the Mike Jarvis's wife was when I broke her blender while making team smoothies.

c. Tom Penders explaining that he didn't pick players based on favorites by saying he would play Adolf Hitler if he could hit the 3.

d. Our crushing defeat to Temple in the A-10 Semis in 2000-2001.

Rest of the interview after the jump:

Remember any chants or traditions from the games?
The only chant I remember very well was my friends in the crowd who would scream loudly for me to get water for each player as they came off the court.

Did you take any basketball road trips?
I travleled with the team on a five-night trip to Fordham and Massachusetts during the 1999-2000 season. We went 2-0 which I attribute to the stress relief of a late night team visit to a strip club in Springfield, Mass. There were no coaches involved but the whole team was there. I take credit for the inspired performance that followed at UMass.

Since then I've traveled to the last 3 A-10 Tournaments with buddies from GW. Two in Cincy and last year in Atlantic City.

Who were your favorite and least favorite players and teams? (GW or otherwise)
Shawnta Rogers, Pat Ngongba, and Albert Roma were favorites. All of them were really nice guys. Least favorite? Honestly, I didn't have one. Most of the guys were friendly. And if you were willing to play basketball for GW I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.

Thanks, Clay. Photo from Facebook.

UPDATE: Clay wrote about the Penders Hitler quote in his CBS Sports column also.